Rachel Field
Rachel Field was an American author born in 1894 in New York City, who became renowned for her contributions to children's literature. After moving to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at age ten, Field developed a passion for writing and performing, excelling in community theater. She attended Radcliffe College, where she wrote several children's plays and graduated in 1918. Her work in New York City included editorial positions and writing plot summaries for films. Field's breakthrough came with her 1930 Newbery Medal-winning book, *Hitty: Her First Hundred Years*, which chronicles the adventures of a wooden doll across various historical contexts.
Over her career, Field published numerous children's stories, novels, and plays, often infusing her narratives with rich detail and a sense of wonder. While she experienced initial challenges with publishing, she ultimately became successful and was also known for her adult fiction, with some of her works adapted into films. Field's legacy in literature is marked by her ability to create engaging narratives for young readers, reflecting a variety of cultures and historical periods. She passed away in 1942 in Beverly Hills, California.
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Rachel Field
Writer
- Born: September 19, 1894
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: March 15, 1942
- Place of death: Beverly Hills, California
Biography
Rachel Field, the daughter of physician Matthew Dickinson Field and Lucy Atwater Field, was born in New York City in 1894 and moved with her family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, when she was ten years old. Before the move, she did not know how to read, but she learned after she went to school in Stockbridge. She excelled in community theater, playing the role of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Rebecca in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She began writing when she was a child and wrote compositions for other students who completed her math homework. Her writing, in fact, was so good that Radcliffe College admitted her in 1914.
While at Radcliffe, she wrote three children’s plays: Rise Up, Jennie Smith: A Play in One Act (pb. 1918), Three Pills in a Bottle (pb. 1918), and Time Will Tell (pr. 1920). After graduating from Radcliffe in 1918, Field worked in New York City, where she held various editorial positions and wrote plot summaries of books and plays for Famous Players-Lasky, a film company. In 1935, she married literary agent Arthur Siegfried Pederson.
After suffering a series of rejections from publishers, Field decided to concentrate on writing for children. In 1924, she published The Pointed People: Verses and Silhouettes and Six Plays, a collection of plays, the majority of which were written while she was at Radcliffe. Between 1926 and 1930, Field published fifteen books. In 1930, Field won the prestigious Newbery Medal for Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, the first woman author to receive the honor. Hitty, a wooden doll carved by a New England peddler in 1820, describes life in a variety of historical periods and locales, including whaling villages in New England, the South Seas, India, and Victorian England. Like Hitty, Field’s many volumes of stories, novels, plays, and poetry for children take place in many historical periods and in many locales, although most are set in New England. Her children’s stories may seem simple, but Field paid keen attention to detail and infused her work with a sense of wonder and, often, surprise. She illustrated many of her own books as well as books written by other authors.
Field also wrote for adults. In fact, during her life time she was better know for her adult fiction than for her children’s books. Several of her novels were adapted for the screen, including All This and Heaven Too, a highly regarded film starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer that was based on Field’s novel of the same name. Field died in Beverly Hills, California, in 1942.